yum cha with friends

Today we had a great day, we went out to the city for yum cha The Regal with my uni friends to celebrate K. R finishing her thesis. yeahh!!!. Kirsten was there with her little boy who is nearly 2 Miles and her partner. The food at the Regal was great as usual, i loved the fried whitebait, the scallop dumplings, the custard buns. I gave Joaquin some whitebait but he nearly choked. He did not eat much just some of a sandwich I had made for him with cheese. After stuffing our faces we walked around the city towards the Spanish Quarter. The Spanish quarter is on Liverpool street, with some excellent Spanish Restaurants as well as the Spanish Club and Torres Spanish deli. we went past the spanish deli , and to our surprise they sell Matambre made in Sydney I think. We bought 200grams and a jar dulce de leche made in Australia.
Then we all went to the QVB to have some cafe and I ordered banana bread and a babycinno for Joaquin and he drank it all and enjoyed it as well as the banana bread. He loved playing with Jas and Kenny and hanging out with my uni friends. He is a good little boy and allows us to go out and enjoy ourself with other adults.
After that the girls walked around the QVB to look at the shops and Jas and Joaquin and Rob went to Dymocks to check out the books. Jas and Joaquin played in the disney section of the book store and there was a Thomas the tank engine train to play on. Jas said Joaquin loved playing with the older 3 year old girls. I bought a book for the party tomorrow for the babies from mother's group.

Mother's group at my place

We had mother's group at my place today. The babies had fun playing with the balloons from J's party and all his toys. I had some banana muffin I had made yesterday and handed it around. The mums and babies stayed until 1pm and then both J and I were both exhausted. I put him down for a little sleep. I think he enjoyed having his friends over. He played with the boys and also played by himself with the computer mouse

Feliz cumple con fotos

Birthday cards


Cake made by Kenny's dad from Paris Cake shop


Ready to blow out candles at Centennial park on his birthday


Empanadas made by Jason and Yamila for his birthday



At party for all bubs from mother's group

Feliz Cumple Joaquin Happy Birthday Joaquin

This is the birthday invitation I have sent out to my friends and some mothers and babies from mother's group.
It is dinosaur theme but who cares, I love it. I used pass the chex font, you can download it from here

I got the idea from Lucas first birthday from here



Here are some other ideas
Mandnickell
Minti
We make three

my little munch munch

I just put Joaquin down for a sleep, he had breast milk even though he secretly just wanted the milk bottle (we use glass now due to the dangers of using plastic that heats up). He loves a good bottle of milk, but he does like to breast feed as well at night I think. I am not sure if I have any milk left, maybe.
I have been eating Turkish delights with rose water, they are spectacular blocks of sweet pink softness and just leave a mixture of freshness and rosewater in my mouth, like eating solid pink bubbles. I am thinking what we will have for dinner tonight and how my teeth are starting to hurt from all that sugar in the turkish pink sugar bombs.
Oh well, I took Joaquin today to a family day care center near the university. The lady or carer was really nice, from the UK and has a 2 year old son with a welsh name. On Monday she cares for another little boy who is nearly 3 and soon will be off to preschool at the end of the month. There is a garden outside to play in the grass and sun, they do cooking and play games and do interactive activities such as paintings. Makes me feel like a bad mum as I do not do any of these things.
The carer call her J, said Joaquin had beautiful eyes and thought it was weird his eyes were already green, as "green is the color that forms last in eye color" well I did not know that, i did not even know you could tell he had green eyes. Jas and I say he has green or hazel eyes, based on the fact we both have green or hazel eyes.
The carer was also impressed I am still breast feeding J and said they are "pro breastfeeding" there. Which is good, I think.
I did like the atmosphere and "feeling" at J's family day care house and I am really thinking it would be good for Joaquin, but at the same time thinking do I really want someone else to care for my son while I am off at university looking at tiny insey winsey teeth and bones belonging to long dead mammals that are over 20 million years old?
I am not sure, I have to think about this.
After going to "check out" the family day care center I walked over to Uni and had lunch with K who is 20 weeks pregnant and saw the other members of the lab. Joaquin is always friendly and cute, he is shy at first but very placid and smily and loves playing trying to say everyone's names.
By the way it has been 20 min and he has not gone to sleep again, and was just crying and standing up on his cot trying to get the music box to play again. I had to calm him and put him back down in his cot, cover him with the blanket and put the music on again. I pat his tummy and he calms down, and then when I leave he cries. He has been crying the last few days when we put him down, he is starting to understand what bye bye and chau and when we leave him alone means. I am not sure if he is scared or just does not want to sleep.
He stood up by himself today for 5 secs and looked very natural. He will be walking soon I think. He also stood on the mini trampoline at the carer's house and held onto the bars and bent his knees and moved up and down .... jumped. He has never been on a trampoline before but he saw the two other boys on it before hand and wanted a go and just did what they were doing. Very perceptive I think. I love my little munch munch (his nick name the last few months)

Joaquin is 51 weeks old

Joaquin is nearly one, yes 12 months old. I wish I had done something similar to Dooce and written a letter to Joaquin for every month or milestone he has overcome, like she did for Leta her daughter who is now 4 or 52 months old.
I was sitting with him on the ground (before I was lying on the ground asleep and he was waking me up with wet mouth kisses and hair pulling) and he came up to me and bit me on the shoulder.
When he was 8 months old whenever he bit, it meant he was tired. So when we told our friend to babysit him when he was 10 months old, we gave her a list of instructions and one was if he bites he is tired, give him a bottle and he may probably sleep.
Now i am not too sure what bitting means. Is it that he is tired? Maybe. Is it that he is bored, very possibly! Is it that he is hungry? could be as well. All I know is that as I type this I am thinking I should feed him soon and put him down for a sleep and I am really feeling the baby bite on my left shoulder.

Joaquin at 11 months

Joaquin is 11 months old.
Here is a list of the things he can do:
He can eat his own toast.
He can drink water out of a sippy cup.
He can drink soda from an adult glass
He loves toast
He eats mild curries (he started that this month May)
He loves tomato based sauces with pasta and veges
He likes to watch Booh Bah
He loves watching music videos and stops what he is doing to watch them
He points at things he wants (started at 9 months)
He claps his hands when happy (started at 7 months after Argentina)
He claps his hands when others are clapping in the music class or on tv
He dances by moving up and down to music videos
He laughs
He laughs when other people are laughing (started at 9.5 months)
He waves hello and goodbye (started at 10.5 months)
He cruises along the furniture (started at 9.5 months)
He walks behind his firetruck (started at 10.5 months)
He can throw balls (started at 10 months)
He chases balls and follows them (started at 10 months)
He can pick up a spoon and put it in his mouth (started at 10 months)
He looks at objects when I point to them (started at 9 months)
He likes playing with trucks and cars (started at 8 months)
He can begin to put shapes in the shape bucket (started 10.5 months)
He can open the door to the balcony (started at 10 months)
He likes to play the drums at music class
He loves the song galump went the little green frog

very tired, up all night

Joaquin is nearly 9 months old and I am nearly 34 (in a few days time). Time is really zipping past as the cliche dictates.
I am so tired as he woke up at 12.45am crying unhysterically and I could not feed him as he was crying and sobbing. Finally i talked to him and calmed him down walking around the room and he fed. He was even smiling and jas had to hold him while I went to the toilet.
Then he woke up at 5am and I fed him and I put him back to sleep and all i heard was the jingle and rattle of blanky bear and no peep from him. At 6.30am Jas alarm went off, and I still not had gotten back to sleep and I got up with him and made some coffee and breakfast and I had a shower and at 7.15am in the middle of breaky, he starts crying again and so i got him out of his cot and breastfed him again. I put some bonjela on his two top incisors. I am not sure why he is out of sorts, I think he may be hungry as last week he was off his veges and now may be hungry, and it is all because of the two upper incisors that came out last week (Monday 25th Feb one came out, and soon shortly after I think on Wednesday or Thursday the second one came through). He vomited his food twice last week, on Monday and Wednesday. We don't know if it was because he chocked and had a reflex or due to teething.
We bought Annabel Karmel book on food for babies and toddlers so maybe that will help me get inspired and feed him different things. Last night had baby pasta with zucchini, broccoli, salmon from a can, white sauce and small amount of shredded parmasan. He loved it, then a whole can of baby custard (banana and chocolate. We had some dulce de batata con chocolate for desert that we bought from Norton St Deli in Bondi Junction, for only 3 dollars and cents. Good price, very cheap.
Ok back to bed
besos

Milestones in Febuary

Joaquin is 8 months, these are some of his milestones for this month.
Tuesday 12th feb crawling by sliding on his tummy
Wednesday 13th Feb started to say ba-ba-bub-bub word

Joaquins milestones in 2008

Today at lunch I saw that Joaquin's second tooth is coming out. This is his bottom right tooth.
Other milestones:
Started to clap with one hand open (left hand) and right hand in fist (last few days)
Was scared of the punching bag (Thursday 17h Jan)
Looks at the Aboriginal art poster to find the little eggs when you ask him "Adonde estan los huevitos?" (Last few weeks)
First tooth incisor left came out on 2nd January
Sits up very well
Can stand up by himself if he holds on to my hand or Jas's hands
Can play by himself for more than half an hour on the mat

Lazy Sunday asado

Today is Sunday. It is nearly 8pm and the sun is still out, it is still incredibly light out and it had rained before. It does not get dark until 11pm.
We had an asado with my family and Sebas postdoc director who is visiting El Sur from Cordoba.
We had a little lamb on the asado and chorizos with a salad made of freshly picked lettuce from my mum's garden. I also made chimichurri with fresh tomatoes, garlic, parsley, orgegano, oil and viniger. We had lunch and played some trivial pursuit. Joaquin had a little nap before lunch and only slept for 30 min and I went in to get the trivia from the cabania and he was crying in his little cot. Poor munchkin. I got him up fed him and Jas made his lunch (a small plate with lamb cut up in small pieces, fresh peas from the garden semi-mashed, small baby cubes of carrot and pumpkin mash. He ate it all. He also had some grapes (just the fleshy bit inside) and laughs so much when Seba throws the grapes into the air and tries to catch it with his mouth. He had a laughing fit yesterday in the afternoon when we were having lunch. After lunch today we tried to put him to sleep in the cot as he was so tired but he cried quite a bit and it really is draining to see this to go through this for both Jas and I. Finally I got him out of the cot breastfed him and he fell asleep and we put him in the cot to sleep. This was at 6.30pm and he is still alseep now. I think he is quite upset as his second tooth came out yesterday.
I would like to go to the park camping as we have less than a week left in Esquel. I will miss my parents my brother so much. It is terrible. I hope we will be back in September!

Pierda Parada

Today we drove to Piedra Parada and to the small town of Gualjaina a small town of 648 people east of Esquel.
Here is another link.
Joaquin was really well behaved in the car and he was the typical patagonian baby. We drove to Gualjaina and had lunch milanesa sandwiches at the Viejo Nandu (Tully's father and brother run this little shop/restaurante). anio
At piedra parada we found bones near the base of the rock and they may have been left by pumas. There was also a funny musky smell like a cat smell by the base and there were small caves around the base. Seb and A walked around the rock and it took 15 min.

The night the lights went out

Today is a beautiful gorgeous day in Patagonia. It rained all day yesterday and snowed on the mountains and was cold outside.
We managed to go for a walk in the rain up the hill and by the river and there was a high cloud on the mountain Sierro 21 and was raining. Even though we were all rouged up it was cold, we were wet and the rain really felt like snow as it touched the skin on my hands.
As we turned away to walk home with the dogs we looked up at the Sierro and it was covered with fresh snow, it looked like a big cake with icing sugar or as Andrea said Panatone con azucar inplpable.
Joaquin stayed at home and mum was getting him to sleep for a little afternoon nap, mind you afternoon here is 9pm. That is the time we went for walk. It was still light when we got home at 10.10pm. Andrea and I left Seb and Jas who went back to look for the dog leash that Seb had left behind on the walk. We left them and went to the local corner shop to buy some cheese as my dad had ordered us to get some for his polenta with chorizo colorado he was making. On our way back from the shops we saw Seb and Jas with the two dogs and the two leashes walking down the street on the way home and we met up and all walked back together. People were already coming out from their home as it was no longer raining but there was a chill in the air.
When we got home wet and cold Dad was nearly finished the polenta and we had also bought some pategrass cheese to have as a snack with some galletitas. Joaquin was sitting on the mat playing, my mum was on the sewing machine sewing a bag she is making for me. I saw that Joaquin was still tired and very hyperactive. My mum told me he had slept nearly the whole time we were away and was now playing by himself. He sits up very well straight and tall.
Jas sat down with him on the mat and Joaquin was trying to climb all over him like a koala. This is the first time we have seen this happen as if Joaquin is trying to get up and stand up, but he can't crawl yet so we are waiting for that milestone. At 10.30pm Jas went to the cabin to get the bath ready and I was cleaning up getting ready to take Joaquin up to the house (rugged up as it was really cold outside for mid summer) and suddenly the lights went out. Damm that. I was a bit stressed and we were all looking for the torch. My mum and dad were calm and it was still light outside. I finally found the torch and then took Joaquin to the cabin were Jas had prepared his bath. My mum gave us some candles and Jas lit them and we bathed him. Joaquin must have sensed I was stressed as in the bathroom he peed on the floor while in my mum's arms. He had a little bath by candle light and I was playing with torch with him, he was trying to get it when I left the torch on the soap-stand. He loves anything new and knows when something in different. He also loves having a bath and playing with the plastic frogs in the bath.
After the bath we changed him and dressed him in his warm polar pjs and I got ready to feed him by candle light and as soon as i got started I thought to myself if the lights come back on we will all be blinded I better tell Jas to turn the light-switches off just in case and then lo and behold the lights came on!
Then i fed him and he fed well and we wrapped him and Jas gave him a bottle top up and put him in his cot and we kissed him goodnight. He cried for a while protesting and sobbing and I left him with Jas and went to the house to get ready for dinner. Jas waited until he was alseep and then came down and we finally ended up having dinner (polenta con chorizo colorado) at about 11.30. Poor little munchkin was really tired!

Photo of Joaquin 31 Dec 2007

Joaquin with his Great-Grandfather

In this photo Joaquin is a little jet lagged as we had just arrived a few days before to Argentina and it really was a long flight. He is 5 1/2 months old.
He behaved very well and slept most of the way from Auckland to Buenos Aires. But once we arrived he was out of sync and that night he cried every hour, like a newborn. Jas and I took turns to get him back to sleep it was difficult but after a few days his jet lag had gone but ours was still there.

i am sicky mama

I am just writing a quick post about how my life is going with my little munchkin!
He is having a small sleep but and it is 11.21am. He woke up at 8.50am for a feed and was quite congested and then I put him back down in the cot without the quilt and just wrapped with a wrap and covered by a sheet. I think he has been sleeping with too much bed clothes and I worry now that he was too hot.
He has been sick with a cold for over a week and a half, from the weekend we went to Scone. I think he got sick from being with his little toddler cousin who was also sick with a cold. It is his first real cold but thankfully he has had no temperature. I think he is at the last part of the cold so hopefully he just has congestion and sniffles and then this will go away. But it is upsetting to here him breathing with a rattling noise when he feeds.
I also was sick but now getting over it too. It was horrible so I feel for him. But otherwise he has been a good little boy. we went to a bbq on Saturday night he was well behaved did not cry and slept and ate. He had a little sleep for 30 min at the bbq and then ate and had a longer sleep afterwards and was still asleep when we got home and put him back in the cot. he is such a cutie!

trials and ways of the world

Finally Friday is here and the week has gone slow.
It rained quite a bit and on the television the news said this morning that there was a weather warning for Sydney and I expected hailstones like in Lismore.
So with trepedation I ran down the street to meet Gaby and Isabella and with Joaquin in the pram and the sky so grey and angry we walked down to the beach to meet the other mothers.
It did not rain until much later and we all had lunch together inside the pub, all the mums and their babies. I had a hamburger even though my mother tells me not to eat meat that has been processed together to form a patty that is not cooked properly. But I ate it anyway and felt a bit guilty. The other mums had fish or pasta or chicken schnitzel.
I fed him and he fell asleep on me so I could eat the chips while talking to the other mothers and I felt some relief.
It really is grown up the atmosphere, the pub, but no one drinks beer or wine, though I did see some mothers from another group with older babies drinking away wine and beer.
Gaby and I stayed until the rain ended and then packed our babies up in their prams and we both placed our rain water gear over the prams to avoid raindrops on our babies.
We walked home and parted ways on our street, I walked up the street and stoped at the corner shop and bought some chocolate (how decadent) and placed some letters that I had to post in the post box. He was asleep by that time and I do not blame him, it was nice and warm in the pram covered in plastic wet weather gear. By the time I got up the hill the rain had started and i got him out of the pram and had to wake him and walked down the steps home. I left the pram on the street and then went back to get it.
He waited for me patiently and when i got in i made a cup of tea, I killed a few cockroaches and sat down to have some tea and chocolate.

Then I fed him and changed his nappy and wrapped him and placed him in the cot. I waited and waited for him to sleep, but he just kept moving and unwrapping himself and grunting and making noises and i went into my bed to wait for him to sleep and he did not sleep. What happened then I do not know but while I was waiting for him to sleep I ended up sleeping for 10 min. When I woke up he was still grunting so I gathered he had not slept. So i put his music on again and then decided to wrap him and I went out of the room and turned the baby monitor on to hear him and he cried for 1 min not solid crying but protest cries and 2 minutes later he was asleep. So here I am waiting for Jas to come home from work and letting him sleep a little bit. Late but better late than never.

While i wait the upstairs neighbors make so much noise, I still consider them to be elephants stomping back and forth, screaming and causing havoc. I don't know how Joaquin stays sleeping through the noise, outside the wind is still howling.

4 month vaccinations

Today I took the little munchkin to the doctors for his 4 month vaccinations. He watched the doctor prepare the injections and did not take his eyes of her. He did not want to breast feed and was a bit upset. I finally got him to feed and the doctor jabbed him in his leg and he cried when she pulled out the needle. He cried poor little thing. I tried to comfort him and then I swapped sides and he tried to feed and she jabbed him again. He cried again when she pulled the needle out. He was very upset but it only lasted a few minutes. I was so hot in the doctors office. I had the doctor measure him and weigh him.
He is 69.5 centimeters which means he is off the charts.
He weighs 6.73 kgs with clothes on. Which is average.
His head circumference is 43cm, which is average.
She called him Mr. average, but he is a long baby.
On the way home he was very calm in the baby bjorn. I bought some olive sourdough bread and came home to Jas who had worked from home.
I fed him some more and changed his nappy and then made lunch for Jas and I. Some salmons sandwiches and carrot and corn salad.
I then got myself ready to go to the Uni to do some work.
Jas got Joaquin ready to take him for a car ride. He was quite happy but very hot from the heat.
In the end I did some work at the uni and got a lift home with a colleague. Jas sent me sms telling me the little munchkin had gone to sleep without much fuss and was very well behaved and had fed him up well. It made me feel so happy.
I think overall it is good for me to get away to do some work and do grown up things while Jas looks after our little son and plays with him and is a dad.

Joaquin and afternoon sleeps

It is 3pm and just got the little munchkin to sleep in his cot during the day. He cried when I wrapped him but i had tried to whine him down before hand but he was already tired and upset.
Lets see how long this afternoon sleep lasts.
He cried and protested for about 10 min and then made some more protest sounds and fell asleep. I can't believe it I made a cup of tea like Jason said and then went to check on him as it was very quite and he was asleep. Great!
Jas has been putting him to sleep like this for a week or so and it has been working fine. His sleep lasts about 1 hour and a half nearly two. Wow if it lasts so long for me I do not know what I will do in that time. I am trying to finish a paper and start with some bandicoot fossils.
There is so much noise around the house with the upstairs elephant kids thumping around and building machinery outside. But he is still asleep.
My friend came to visit with her little 18 month old and he was walking around playing with everything, he actually played with the speaker pushing it and instead of it falling backwards it fell on him bruising him on the forehead. He got a little cut and a big bump. I hope he gets better.

Joaquin is 4 months today

Today Joaquin turned 4 months old (17 weeks old).
I am now at home and he has had a little sleep. He still only sleeps 20-30 minutes at a time and today he has slept once down at the pub with the mothers group, the second time in the pram when I was walking home and the third from 5.30 to 6pm. Now he on the play mat, he is a bit grumpy grabbing the hanging mobiles and the toys. He gets frustrated but he can grab things quite well now and gets frustrated when he grabs them and can not put them in his mouth.
He is wearing his dinosaur tshirt that my mother got him from Esquel that is for a 6 month old.
I went to the mothers group down at the beach and he was a bit grumpy there as well but overall he was well behaved and alert and looking at the other babies.
We mothers talked about everything from baby fat on our bodies to baby massage.